Agri-food trade: Exports sustain a strong level, leading to an important trade surplus for April 2019

The monthly value of EU agri-food exports in April 2019 reached €12.6 billion, 12.5% above April 2018 and only slightly below March 2018’s record-breaking levels. Imports were valued at €10.3 billion- a 4% increase from April 2018. This led to a monthly agri-food trade surplus of €2.3 billion. These are the main findings from the latest monthly trade report published by the European Commission.

By country, the highest increases in monthly export values (April 2019 compared to April 2018) were recorded for China (up by €318 million), USA (an increase of €255 million) and Japan (rising by €91 million). There was however a decrease in exports to Hong Kong (dropping by €34 million), Saudi Arabia (down by €18 million) and Bangladesh (a fall of €15 million).

Imports from Ukraine (an increase of €194 million), China (rising by €93 million), New Zealand (growing by €50 million) and Morocco (up by €43 million) all rose, while there were decreases in the value of imports from Australia (down €77 million), Indonesia (a drop of €75 million) and Madagascar (a decrease of €43 million).

By sector, there was a significant increase in the value of wheat exports (up €186 million), with pork meat (growing by €134 million), spirits and liqueurs (rising €127 million) and wine and vermouth (up by €73 million) also performing strongly. By contrast, there were significant drops in the export of raw hides and skins (down €63 million), beet and cane sugar (dropping €57 million) and vegetable oils, excluding palm and olive oil, (down €20 million).

Substantial increases were recorded in import values of coarse grains (up by €109 million), vegetables (increasing €109 million) and vegetable oils (excluding palm oil and olive oil) (up €65 million), while imports of palm oil (down €111 million), citrus fruit (dropping €42 million) and wheat (down €33 million) saw the largest drops in value.

Source: EUROSTAT - COMEXT

Monitoring EU agri-food trade: Development until April 2019

28 June 2019

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Previous reports

Previous monthly data on EU agri-food imports and exports.